I had written my state senator, Jeff Wentworth, a few months ago bitchin' about the sorry state of affairs regarding interstate (and intrastate) wine shipment in Texas, and urging him to support state legislation to authorize same. Received a reply today, in which he states that both the senate and house interstate bills died in committee (through effective lobbying by the distributors), but the intrastate bill passed. So as of 1 Sep this year, we can order wines directly from the producers. What he doesn't mention is the requirement that the consumer must pay a retailer to accept delivery, which from what I understand is a provision of the new law.

You're right, Foodie, but I had really hoped to get a straight answer from Jeff; we're ol' Aggie buds, known each other since '59.
Oh, well. He's been in office for about 20 years, certainly long enough to learn how to tell constituents what he thinks they want to hear.

Texas will face the same constitutional challenge as Virginia where the magistrate ruled you can't have two classes of wineries. Even if states can legally prohibit direct shipping - and that will finally be sorted out by the Supremes - they most definiteley cannot treat intra and interstate wineries differently. This type of protectionism led to the sacrosanct Interstate Commerce Clause. The legislators, in the long run, may have done the consumer, and the out-of-state wineries, more of a favor than they know.